Alpine Technosphere
How do we live with technologies in the mountains? How do technologies influence our relationship with the alpine environment? What does this presence of human infrastructure mean in the context of the environmental crisis?
The elements shown on this website reflects the material we collected and produced during a workshop that combined field research methods and 3D design. This workshop, completed in January 2020, aimed at documenting the place of technologies and their integration in the Alpine landscape, taking the case of the Chamonix Valley as an example. This theme was based on current debates about the environmental crisis and its many facets (climate change, pollution, biodiversity breakdown). We chose to address this topic through a poetic observation of the Technosphere, i.e. the set of infrastructure that humans have built for their activities (habitats, factories, farms, transport systems, computers, tourism, etc.) Rather than denouncing the presence of technical objects in an environment often thought of as “natural” and pristine, the posture we adopted consisted in grasping the use of technologies in this context in order to explore our relationship with the alpine environment.
We spent several days in the Chamonix Valley, documenting the presence of different kinds of technologies (ski lift, roads, mountain vehicles such as snow plows and bobcats, former mines and quarries). Using field research methods such as photography, photo scanning techniques, video, sound recording, electromagnetic waves detection as well as drawings, we collected material that we turned into 3D pieces to express our observations. Some were interested in artificial snow machines, others in former mines, or glacial boulders turned into gravestones as well as the general atmosphere of the Valley.
At the crossroads of design and ethnography, this workshop aimed to teach the importance of observation in the context of the environmental crisis. While designers are often asked to find “solutions”, we chose to take a step back and adopt a different approach. Our field trip aimed to understand local parameters and constraints of the man-made technosphere, in order to highlight the various ranges of technological issues at stake in a mountain context. We hope that such projects can add nuances about the future ways of living in the Alps.
Interview with the Alps
by Gabriel Abergel and Johan Pardo
Interview with the Alps
Gabriel Abergel, Johan Pardo
Exploration and data collection in the Chamonix valley, as part of research on the technosphere and its hybridization with nature.
Guided by the senses, we followed the sounds of the valley, from the urban sounds to the sounds of nature, while identifying the images associated with them. During this 3-day interview of the valley, we were able to reveal, thanks to the different samples taken, a soundscape that we showed through a 3-dimensional visualization.
Interview with the Alps
(research)
Gabriel Abergel, Johan Pardo
Interview with the Alps
(research)
Gabriel Abergel, Johan Pardo
Rock Station, Artificial Stones
by Amsatou Diop and Aurelie Belle
Rock Station Artificial Stones
Amsatou Diop, Aurelie Belle
We wantedto start by looking at the common and must known places in Chamonix. In each place we visited, we tried to lookfor stones that would be interesting for us. Each stone was then put ina plastic bag whit a number and the GPS coordinates of where we found the stones put on maps.
The big stone present on the final project is the one we found at the cemetery. Covered in snow and grass, it struck us by the fact that it wasn’t there by nature but brought there by man. We took pictures of it to scan it and import in 3D.
After our research we realized that we found 3 types of stones:
- Natural stones: with natural composition
- Hybrid stones: between natural composition and modified by men
- Artificial stones: modified by men
To showcase the different textures and stones abrasions, we decided to reproduce in 3D, the majestual stone we found in the cemetery. We draw our path around the stone, allowing the viewer to go aroundit and with every turn the texture of the stone changes to reveal a new texture.This is our way to make each viewer travel on the same path we tookand discovering Chamonix trough his stones.
Three shorts videos where also made to showcase the three types of stones with a light to differentiatethem (natural light for natural stones, exaggeratedwhite light for hybridstones and blue/purple light for artificial stones).
Rock Station
Artificial Stones
(research)
Amsatou Diop, Aurelie Belle
Rock Station
Artificial Stones
(research)
Amsatou Diop, Aurelie Belle
Rock Station
Artificial Stones
(research)
Amsatou Diop, Aurelie Belle
Materia Prima
by Laís Kunzendorff
Matera Prima is an invitation to imagine post-apocalyptic scenarios of exploration of raw materials in the geographical context of the French Alps (Chamonix - Montblanc). Taking as a starting point the way in which mineral exploration has been carried out in developing countries, in particular iron ore and precious metals exploration cicles in Brazil, this work intends to make visible the consequences of exploration, devastation and environmental neglect by large corporations operating in these countries.
